- Should I tell my boss and/or team? Should I tell them right away, or wait until I know what other steps I want to take? What should I expect their reactions to be?
Yes and No. Yes if you believe your boss will be supportive to help you find a work-life balance. No if you don't think so and just try to work less to recover.
- Should I take time off? How much? Or should I try to work reduced hours? I'm hesitant because I don't have many hobbies (if any) and in the middle of the pandemic there isn't much to do anyway. I don't think running out of things to do would be any better for my health than continuing as-is. I've been there before and I don't handle boredom well.
Both? Use your time to recover and work reduced hours. Find new hobbies and get bored because that way you will be more creative and pursue passion projects. Maybe you're burned out because you don't have a hobby outside of work. Embrace being bored until creativity strikes for your next thing.
- If I continue working, is there something in my working environment I should try to change? Think of senior engineer in a typical DevOps-y SaaS startup.
Burnout in my experience comes from not having something better to do than work. Find hobbies, make friends, play games, read books, etc. It can also manifest in not being able to accomplish certain things at work, so talk to people and find ways to unblock yourself.
- Is there anything specific to working in tech and burning out that I should know about? I feel like this isn't exactly rare.
Not really. Maybe you just have been working too much and you're at the verge of a breakdown. Find things that make you happy. Right now, that's probably not a computer.
Yes and No. Yes if you believe your boss will be supportive to help you find a work-life balance. No if you don't think so and just try to work less to recover.
- Should I take time off? How much? Or should I try to work reduced hours? I'm hesitant because I don't have many hobbies (if any) and in the middle of the pandemic there isn't much to do anyway. I don't think running out of things to do would be any better for my health than continuing as-is. I've been there before and I don't handle boredom well.
Both? Use your time to recover and work reduced hours. Find new hobbies and get bored because that way you will be more creative and pursue passion projects. Maybe you're burned out because you don't have a hobby outside of work. Embrace being bored until creativity strikes for your next thing.
- If I continue working, is there something in my working environment I should try to change? Think of senior engineer in a typical DevOps-y SaaS startup.
Burnout in my experience comes from not having something better to do than work. Find hobbies, make friends, play games, read books, etc. It can also manifest in not being able to accomplish certain things at work, so talk to people and find ways to unblock yourself.
- Is there anything specific to working in tech and burning out that I should know about? I feel like this isn't exactly rare.
Not really. Maybe you just have been working too much and you're at the verge of a breakdown. Find things that make you happy. Right now, that's probably not a computer.